


Adventures into Joyness

by Insomination



Category: Inside Out (2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-07-29 06:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 34
Words: 19,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7673635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insomination/pseuds/Insomination
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is, in no particular order, all the one-shots I've written for the ship "Joyness" from Inside Out. Probably ever-expanding</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Busted

“Ok folks. That was the day, no one died, and I’m guessing Joy and Sadness have dream duty.” Fear yawned into his hand.  
“Yep!” Joy exclaimed, actually dancing around in a small circle while the other emotions watched.  
“You guys head to bed! We’ve got this!”  
“Someday I won’t be too tired to take over. Then what will you do?” Disgust asked the pair as they sat down on the bench that popped up from the floor when Riley slept.  
“I don’t know. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.” Joy replied.  
“And probably fall off.” Sadness muttered from behind her.  
“Seven straight days of dream duty isn’t healthy.” Disgust muttered as she trudged off to her room. “But, if they’re up to it, then whatever.”

Anger yawned and stretched to the limit his stocky body could. He had woken up at midnight and couldn’t go back to sleep, so he decided to go hunt down that one memory they kept of warm hot chocolate.  
Exiting his room, he walked around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. Joy and Sadness were sitting very close together on the bench.  
Kissing. They were kissing on dream duty.  
Anger grinned and leaned up against the wall. “WEEEEELLLLL. Now it AAAALLL makes sense.” He said, practically yelling some of the words.  
Joy and Sadness shot apart like magnets of the same poles.  
“What’s going on?” Fear muttered as he walked out of his room, rubbing his eyes.  
“Joy and Sadness have been making out on dream duty!” Anger replied, taking far too much pleasure out of the horrified looks on Joy and Sadness’s faces.  
“So that explains all the shifts.” Disgust said, walking out from behind Anger fully alert.  
Everyone stared at each other for a moment.  
“Welp, good to know. G'night you two!” Fear called as he turned his back and walked back to his room.  
“Don’t have too much fun!” Anger called, doing the same.  
“Ugh. The spit on that couch. I’m not doing dream duty for a week.” Disgust called, making sure Joy and Sadness heard her as she returned to her bed as well.  
Joy and Sadness got stuck with an extra, legitimate shift of dream duty for that stunt.


	2. Hurricane

It all started with the party.   
Parties were more her thing, but Joy was over-the-moon happy that Sadness had decided to at least try it out. It was also a big shock to get at the time.   
“Alright Sadness, I’m headed out.”   
“Where you going, honey?” Sadness replied from her reading chair.   
“Fear’s office party. He invited me, and I do like parties. Besides, he might not do too well by himself.” Joy said, more to herself for the second part. Chuckling a little, she grabbed her keys and stepped to the door before she was stopped by a wait in Sadness’s voice. Turning, she saw the shorter woman already had her coat on and was staring at her with more than a hint of aggressive defiance in her eyes. Joy was scared, until Sadness said “I want to go too.”   
Then she was concerned.   
“Are you sure? I know parties aren’t really fun at all for you. You don’t have to if-”   
“No! This time I want to! I want to try this. Try something new?” Sadness said, starting with the aggression shown in her eyes but quickly losing her confidence. Joy knelt down to Sadness’s shorter stature and said “Sadness, I will always support you if you want to try something new.” deadly serious. And so Sadness had come to the party.   
Joy looked over, doing a quick check on everyone she knew in the room. Anger and Fear were talking to other couples, and Sadness had found a group of people who shared her interests, and they were smiling at having a blast. Joy couldn’t stop the giant grin from spreading across her face at the sight of Sadness having a good time at a party. Turning back to her own group of people, she talked for some amount of time until she, and everyone else, heard the slurred “Hey there girl.” That could only mean one thing. Dudebro was hitting on some poor, defenseless girl. As Joy turned around to check it out, her blood ran cold. There was a Dudebro alright. And he was standing way too close to Sadness.   
“Those clothes don’t suit you, girl. Let’s go get you something more comfortable.” Dudebro managed to shove out, while teetering closer and closer to a retreating Sadness.   
“Uuuhh, no thanks. I came with someone else.” Sadness replied, painfully aware that all eyes were on her.   
“Pffft. Once you get a piece of this, there won’t be no one else.”   
“N-no. I’d rather not.” Sadness stuttered out, her back now literally against the wall.  
That stutter triggered a chain of thoughts on Joy’s mind.   
Sadness told her once that she hadn’t stuttered since 11th grade, and the pride on her face had made Joy kiss her right then and there.   
How dare this dickhead make Sadness feel like this. HOW DARE HE.   
Joy knew what happened next, but it was almost as if she were only in partial control of her body. Like it did what it wanted to do, but it was also what she wanted to do.   
She crushed her drink in her hand and stalked over to Dudebro, people parting in front of her like the Red Sea. When she got to him, she grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face her. Then she gave him her sweetest smile, and slammed his face into her knee.   
And then threw him across the room, away from Sadness.   
Then she elbow dropped him off a table.   
And then there was just a lot of straight up punching.   
Then she stomped on the back of his head.   
After that one, the police were called and she was bodily dragged off of him.   
When the police showed up, she was being restrained by four separate fully grown men.   
The next thing she actually remembers is sitting on an uncomfortable office chair with a cup of hot chocolate in her hands and a shock blanket around her shoulders, with an armed officer watching her every move.  
Her eyes were on the cup  
A detective came in. “Ma'am, I’ve been an officer for thirty years.” He started, pulling up another chair to sit and face her. “The only other time I’ve seen someone beat that bad was when a boxer beat his wife to death.”   
Her head snapped up to his. She hadn’t-  
“Oh don’t worry. He’ll live. You actually did us a semi-favor. We’ve been looking for that guy for a year. He’s been embezzling money from the company.”   
But listen here Joy.“ He said, his voice dropping to a serious tone. "That was a serious assault. You’ve been an upstanding citizen your whole life, so we’ll let it slide. But if it happens again, you’re going to jail. For at least five years. Understand?”   
Joy nodded vigorously.   
“Ok. You’re free to go.”   
Joy downed the hot chocolate and bolted for the door.   
Sadness was waiting on a bench on the sidewalk.   
Joy stopped running the moment she saw her. All the horrible things she did to that guy came back to her. There was no way Sadness would ever love her again.   
Joy dropped to her knees and began to sob into her hands.   
A hand gently lifted her face, and she met Sadness’s eyes with her own for an eternal second.   
Sadness whispered “Sssshhh. It’s Ok.” And wiped Joy’s tears away, but that only started her up again. Sadness held her close right there in the middle of the street and answered every blubbered “I’m sorry.” with “It’s Ok.”   
And, eventually, it was Ok.


	3. Crafty

Joy danced around the classroom, a master in her element. She helped, consoled, congratulated, and scolded multiple young ones across multiple yards, all in a single breath. Sadness couldn’t help but grin as she watched. Sure her wife was beautiful as is, but the grace and ease she exuded while working was like watching a cold marble statue come to life into a warm, caring human being.  
But 7 year olds can be crafty little devils. And Joy was only one woman. Unseen by either adult, three of the first graders had gathered themselves in a corner and were whispering a plan to each other. They were smart enough to realize that it would probably get them in trouble, but the ends justified the means.   
One of the students asks Joy to come help with her paper Santa, leading her closer to the door. Once they were close enough, the other student in on the plan rolls a ping pong ball right under Joy’s foot, and Joy goes careening down.   
Right into Sadness’s arms.   
Before either of them can say or do a anything, the third delinquent shouts “Mistletoe!”   
Sadness and Joy look up. Sure enough, a paper mistletoe was taped above their heads. All the students sat expectantly.   
“Sneaky little devils.” Sadness muttered, her mouth already closing in on Joy’s.   
“Oh you have no idea.” Joy replied before the distance between them closed and they shared a private kiss in a very public place.


	4. October 31st

It was hard convincing Joy she was too old to go trick or treating.  Really hard.  But Sadness had to make Joy face the music. She had no problem with dressing up and going out, she loved that. But a 30 year-old stranger walking with a bunch of twelve year olds was a serious issue.  So Joy stopped trick or treating. And she was sad. But luckily, she was Joy. And Joy was never sad for long. And was never far away from a clever idea or two.  “A party?” Sadness asked, compulsively smoothing her blue raindrop costume.  “An awesome party! And that’s not all, we have that old broken projector the school was getting rid of! I bet we can get Fear to fix it, he’s great with that kind of thing!”  “And then…?”  “And then we have a neighborhood-wide movie party!”  Sadness finished putting her costume over her desk chair for later in the week, and said “You know what? Let’s give it a shot.”  “REALLY?”  “Yes Joy. I think that if we do this right, it could be spectacular.”  Joy squeezed Sadness in a bone-crusher hug and lifted her from the floor, dancing and singing a song compromised of “I love you!” and “This is gonna be awesome!”  Halloween night was possibly the most perfect night all year for a party. Sadness didn’t know how Joy did it. As soon as she set her mind to something, not even the weather would get in her way. Good thing to, because the entire neighborhood showed up. Trick or treating was suspended, because Joy bought about 20 bags of mixed candy and let kids take as much as they liked, with the condition that they had to eat healthy while watching the movie and make sure to spread the candy out.  “Don’t want it to go to waste!” Joy said in that Joy-voice that Lucifer himself couldn’t even say no to.   The party was a blast. They started out with child-appropriate horror films, then moved to the more bloody-gorey-spooky stuff when the kids were all escorted home by one or both parents who promised to return. They all felt like they were in college again.  “I gotta say Joy, I don’t think that could’ve gone any better.” Sadness said as she packed up the fully functional and, theoretically, upgraded projector into an empty box. Apparently the thing was so old Fear had actually refused to let them pay him, saying he was doing humanity a service by bringing this “old heap of disappointment” up to the 21st century.  Joy, who had bagged and stored the remaining candy/food, and put the chairs, broke off one of the rays of her sun costume and proceeded to mock fence with it. “Yeah, I’m so glad everybody showed up.” She said, before creeping up behind Sadness and waiting for her to turn.  When she did, she was greeted with the sight of a cardboard stick an inch from her nose. “Do you yield?” Joy half-shouted in a knight voice.  Sadness grinned a quiet grin, then in one fluid motion batted the “sword” away and knocked Joy off her feet, catching her before she fell. “Never, dear.” Sadness whispered before pulling Joy back up into a kiss. When they did break apart, Sadness whispered “Happy Halloween.” into Joy’s ear.  “It absolutely is.”


	5. With a Smile

Joy stretched her arms, bending her wrists to avoid hitting the bed frame. As she stretched, she felt Sadness cuddle up closer to her side, wrapping her arm over Joy’s stomach.   
Joy was a tough person to displease (hence the name), but it’s moments like this that she really felt the purest form of happiness in. Morning sun filtering through the curtains, all the right smells of nature filtering through the windows, warm covers and her warm wife. It couldn’t get better.   
But time and tide waits for no woman. Eventually, Joy leaned down and muttered “I need to get to work.” into Sadness’s hair. While she didn’t exactly hear what Sadness said, she’d been living with the woman long enough to understand.  
“Yes now. You know I have to be in on time.” She slowly unwrapped herself from Sadness’s arms, stood up from the bed, and leaned down to kiss Sadness on the cheek. “I’ll try and be back as soon as I can.”

“You know, there are ups and downs to being a boss.” Joy said to the man on the table.   
“I can set my own hours, I control the pay, it seems like the best job right?”   
“Mmmmph!”   
“Shhhh. You’re part will come soon. Anyway, it seems exciting, but it’s really not. All the extra hours you can give yourself will be used to manage your business. And you can’t give yourself so much money your open positions don’t get filled right? It’s hard.”   
The man stared up at her, wide eyed, breathing heavily.   
“But there is one good benefit no matter what. I can always guarantee my wife’s safety from the most dangerous gang in town.”  
She leaned down to a half inch away from his face.   
“Because why would I ever hurt her?”   
She straightened up again, speaking as she walked over to her desk.   
“I’m sure you’re expecting one of those whole ‘where’s my money’ speeches they do in movies Tim. Well I’m not going to give you one of those speeches. I’ve had to ask you three times now. Baseball rules: 3 strikes,” she slid a bat out from the space where her feet would go. “you’re out. You don’t even get to explain yourself now. In fact, let’s stick with the sports theme shall we?”   
Joy took the table and rotated it 90 degrees so Tim was hanging upside down. She lined the bat up so it was touching his cheek, then pivoted herself and brought it above her shoulders. “FORE!”

“How was work honey?” Sadness said as Joy hugged her from behind. “Eh. You know. Hit and miss.” Joy muttered into Sadness’s hair.


	6. Something Nice

“Sadness, you’ll never believe what I just found!”  
Sadness looked up from her book as Joy burst into the room in her usual Joy-fashion. The door was open of course, but “bursting” was really the only way to describe it. She was holding a game case. Sadness put on her glasses to read the title. “Little Big Planet 2.” She said aloud. “Yeah!” Joy replied. “There was a demo on at GameStop, and it’s the nicest game ever! It’s even multiplayer! It’ll be great! I figured we could skip right to two and not miss much.”   
“Alright. Let’s give it a shot.”

Sadness wasn’t a big fan of video games. Not because she didn’t like them, but many a game not made for ten-year-olds came with plenty of violence, and Sadness could not take violence. Of any kind, cartoon or otherwise. So Joy played the games. But today might be different.

Joy loaded the game into their XPlay. It automatically selected the new disc, and started the install. “Lemonade?” Joy asked.   
“Is it the homemade one you did yesterday?”   
“You bet.”   
“I’ll take a glass.”   
Joy went to go grab the lemonade while Sadness watched the update.   
Joy came back out right as Sadness was about to call “It’s done!”   
She instead muttered “Nice timing.” into her glass as they sat down for the intro.

After the intro, it was determined that Story Mode was not cut out for Sadness. However, the game was not cast aside like one might think. Joy thought up the perfect idea to keep the game alive.   
“We could make each other levels in the level maker!”   
“Really?”   
“We could make them for one person, both of us, or even us and friends!”   
And so everyday, after their duties were done, one or both of them sat down at the TV and worked on LBP.   
And that’s how Sadness discovered Journey.


	7. Ark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAANNNNNGST

Sadness wasn’t a religious person. She had nothing wrong with people who were, it just wasn’t part of who she was. But that was before. Now, she was sure there was a Devil. Only He could be this cruel.

Joy dragged them up the hill, excitedly babbling about the beautiful day and amazing food they had and general amazingness of life. Joy was one of the only things that Sadness smiled about. In anyone else it would be brain-meltingly annoying, but Joy’s boundless positivity and happiness always made her feel happy.   
They sat down in the shade of the tall tree at the top of the hill and dug into their meal.

They never saw it coming.   
That is why they call it a flash flood. It happens in a flash. As it was, the only reason they survived was because they were on top of a hill. One moment everything was fine. 20 seconds later, everything but the hill they were sitting on had been erased by the roaring torrent of water.   
And it was still rising.   
As the current quickly ate away at the soil on the hill, the tree behind them began to tilt dangerously. Without really thinking, Sadness shoulder-checked the tree. When it passed the point of no return, Sadness grabbed Joy’s hand and jumped onto their wooden Ark.   
It worked. They were floating above their old town, being carried by the flow.   
Or most of their old town.   
Sadness felt the jar as they hit something a lamp post, or the church spire maybe.   
It didn’t matter. It was enough.   
She heard the shriek behind her and turned just in time to look Joy in the eyes one more time before she fell in the water.   
The look in Joy’s eyes would stay with Sadness forever.   
Laying down, she hugged the tree trunk with her arms and legs.   
And her tears mixed with the flood.


	8. Viral

“Hi everybody! My name’s Joy!”   
“And mine is Sadness.”   
“And this our first YouTube video! I’m really excited!”   
“Today we’re going to be making upside-down cake!”   
Joy paused the video there, turning to look at her girlfriend.   
“It was a good idea. It really was.” She said to a sniffling Sadness as she pulled more dough out of her hair.   
They obviously should’ve started with a recipe they knew. Apparently, something they put in the batter for their cake catalyzed with the oven’s heat. When Joy opened the oven to check on the cake, Sadness close behind, the batter had violently exploded outward like someone had put a hand grenade it the middle.   
Suffice to say, that had been the end of their attempt.   
Now the main question, do they upload it anyway?   
Sadness stared at the frozen images of their faces. “They’re going to mock us.”   
“You’re probably right.”   
“There’s not going to be any real gain for us either.”   
“You’re definitely right.”  
“So why upload it?”   
Joy skipped ahead to their stunned, dough covered faces.   
“Imagine how many people we could make laugh.”

The video got 4,000 views while they slept.


	9. Crossing a Line

“Hey. Hey Sadness.”   
Sadness knew that tone of voice. She sighed, then turned to face Joy.   
“Yes Joy?”   
Joy nodded to the screen, the image filled with a kid that had to have dogs on literally everything he owned. His bag. His books. His shirt. He even had a tattoo of a pug on his right arm. Riley was not interested. She liked dogs. Who didn’t? But this was taking it too far.   
“I guess you could say he’s BARKING up the wrong tree!”   
Joy collapsed in a fit of laughter at her own terrible joke. Sadness never laughed of course. I mean it was in her name. But she couldn’t deny that Joy was her most beautiful when she was laughing. So she smiled fondly down at the shaking emotion on the ground, leaning down to give Joy a quick kiss on the forehead before going back to steering Riley.

Joy stared at the empty chair, shocked speechless. Not shocked at the chair, shocked at herself. She had become desensitized to others, blinded by her own ecstatic love of what she thought was funny.   
It had been during dream duty where the brach finally broke. They were watching the dream together like they did some nights as a pseudo-date. A large troll had rumbled up over a hill and Joy immediately burst with laughter.   
“Look at that thing! It’s cracking the ground it’s so big!”  
“Haha. Yeah.” Sadness had replied.   
That should have been her first clue. Sadness never laughed at her jokes. She never lied like that to Joy. But she had been too blind. She kept going.   
“Look at it! It practically has it’s own orbit!”   
“Joy I-”   
“Wait wait wait! Let’s watch it try and cross the bridge! I bet it’s too fat!”   
That was the straw. A resounding *SMACK* echoed through the room.   
Sadness had slapped her.   
When she had her head back to Sadness, Joy had seen years in Sadness’s eyes.   
“So you think being fat is funny?” She had half-yelled, half-sobbed.   
And Joy, Joy had done the worst thing of all. Before she could even think, before she even processed a response, the words “Jeez Sadness, learn to take a joke.” had slid out of her mouth like a snake.   
Neither of them moved, staring at each other for eons.   
Sadness bolted to her room right as Joy said “Sadness wait I!-”   
She was already gone.   
Joy’s hand, raised toward Sadness’s retreating sweater, dropped back down to her lap. She stared blankly at the empty seat, reflecting on what had just happened. Bringing us to the present, and her to a conclusion.   
‘I can’t lose Sadness.“   
She trudged up to Sadness’s door, and knocked.   
"Sadness?”  
No reply.   
“Sadness can we talk?”  
Nothing.   
“Ok. You don’t have to talk. But I do.”   
“I’m sorry Sadness.”  
Don’t cry Joy. You don’t deserve to cry.   
“What I said back there, it was wrong. I was being a jerk to other people and thought it was funny, when really all I was doing was hurting people. It will never happen again. I promise on…”   
“I promise on Bing-Bong.”   
Still nothing. Joy didn’t mind.   
Ok. She minded. But she also understood. What she said left marks. Marks that couldn’t be erased by a ten minute speech and a promise. Sadness needed time.   
Joy fell asleep outside Sadness’s door.


	10. My Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based off a song of the same name

Sadness was watching Netflix when Joy got home. She was halfway to calling out “Hey honey!” When she heard a sniffle.   
Looking over her shoulder, she saw that Joy was in tears. Vaulting the couch with surprising energy, she dashed over to Joy.   
“Is everything OK?” She said as she lead Joy over to the couch.  
“I-I was just coming up the driveway, and I heard our neighbors fighting through the windows! The things they said…” was all Joy could say before she burst into a fresh bout of tears.   
It was actually rather surprising how Sadness didn’t really understand, but it didn’t matter. She was going to help in any way she could.   
“You’re my memoooryyy” Sadness started to sing.  
“You’re the reason I’m meee.”   
“You’re my memoooryyy/You’re the reason I’m meee!”   
Joy had stopped crying. She was looking at Sadness like she was insane, but she had stopped crying.   
“You’re the love of my liiife!/that’s why I chose you to be my wiiiife!” She sang, poking Joy in the sides to make her laugh in the ‘you’s.   
“Nothing else counts to me” she sang, lifting Joy of the couch and spinning her in a dance.   
“There’s nothing else I’d rather see./You’re the one for meeee!”   
“Ok ok!” Joy said, giggling. “I got it I got it!” She dragged them back onto the couch, planting a kiss on Sadness’s head. “Thank you.”   
“Anything for you Joy.”   
Joy kissed her again.


	11. Moonlight

Joy rode her bike down the road, finding a balance between speed and caution. She wanted to get there as soon as possible, but falling off her bike and breaking her arm at 1 AM is moderately terrifying. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the thought out of her mind, focusing on the area in front of her bike light illuminated. And soon enough she was there. She walked her bike though the field. Last time she left it in the grass where she couldn’t see it, it took her half an hour to find. That wasn’t happening again. She got to the flattened out part she knew well by now, and set up a blanket and picnic basket. Then she put on a relaxing song, reclined onto her back to look up into the night sky, and waited. Lauren Aquilina was the only artist they both 100% liked. The music was both happy and sad in every way. The words, the notes, all of it. The song half over by the time she heard the other bike chain clicking up to her spot.   
“Someday this music is going to get us caught.” Sadness said, laying down next to Joy.   
“You still love it.” Joy said, rolling over to face Sadness and wrapping one arm around the other girl.   
“Well you’re not wrong.” Sadness conceded, pressing herself closer to Joy.   
They spent many a night like that, curled together under the moon.


	12. Game

Sadness thought a lot about some of the video games Riley played. How who wen first was determined by their speed. Pretty smart. But that thought was usually followed up by ‘But my speed is zero. And she doesn’t even know she’s playing. So we’ll never finish.’ and then she got sad again.

She wouldn’t specifically say she had a crush on Joy. I mean sure, she couldn’t help but stare whenever she first saw the taller emotion. And she sometimes(always) spied on her when she was on dream duty. And she drew pictures of her ice skating and dancing and SMILING AND GLOWING-  
OK fine. Maybe she had a crush.   
But it didn’t matter. She could never ask Joy out. She’d just screw it up somehow, and then things would be awkward, and they’d slowly drift apart, and then Riley would suffer, and then Joy would be angry.   
And Sadness could not take that. Especially not if Joy was angry at her.   
She cursed her own inherent pessimism, but she couldn’t break herself out of this cycle. So she made herself be OK with just knowing the emotion as a friend. It beats not knowing at all.

“Welp guys, that’s us!” Joy exclaimed cheerily as Riley’s eyes closed and she lost consciousness.   
“I think Joy and Sadness should do dream duty tonight.”   
It took every iota of Sadness’s being to not whip her head around to Disgust. What did she mean by that? Did she know? Was she being that obvious? Oh God if she was that obvious then did Joy know?   
“Perfect! I-uh-excellent! I mean excellent. Everyone else off to bed now!” Joy said, literally pushing the other three off and, in Anger’s case, throwing them into their rooms. Shutting the last door, she turned around and raced back to the controller, pressing the button for some chairs to pop up on the way.   
“Ok! Let’s get going!”

“Happy or sad?”   
“Her dog died. I’m gonna say sad.”   
Joy conceded, taking her hands off the controller and Sadness placing hers on. The blue memory rolled out and clinked against the other dreams she had tonight against the rest.   
When the next dream appeared, it was just scenery. A beautiful hilltop, butterflies fluttering and a light breeze blowing the flowers.   
“Huh.” Sadness said. “I guess this one is happy.”  
“Sadness.”   
“Ok ok. It IS happy. There’s no way this could be sad.”   
“Sadness.”  
“What you think it’s a mix? I mean I don’t really see-”   
“SADNESS.”  
Turning her head, Sadness started a “What?” but it died at “Whhhh” because when she turned, she saw Joy’s face was close to hers.   
Very close.   
Their noses were touching.   
Without a word, and seemingly without conscious thought, both of them maneuvered their faces closer until they were actually breathing into each other’s mouths.   
Nothing moved.   
Joy moved her head the extra distance, and now they were kissing.   
It was slow and awkward. Just lips and a weird side hug. But neither cared. Because they both knew that is was the beginning of something great.  
Sadness smiled as she realized not only was Joy playing the game, but she had won.


	13. Fate

“Oh come on Sam! You’ll love it!”   
“Jocelyn, you always love these animated kids movies.”  
“You’re saying that like it’s a problem.”  
“It is for us.” Samantha muttered.   
“I heard that! Besides, there is no us. Right now, there is only you. Felix and Adam are out on a date, and Diana is cleaning her apartment.”  
“Didn’t she do that last week?”   
“Yes.” Joy sighed. “Yes she did. Now come on!” She said, rushing over to the popcorn line. “I need snacks.”

'It’s a good thing the theater is practically empty.’ Joy thought as she held Sam’s sobbing head against her shoulder.   
“It’s OK. The volcanos got together in the end!”   
“But one died in the middle!” Samantha wailed. “And he was all alone for eons!”   
“It was sad for a while, but it ended happy. That’s the important part. Sh sh sh! It’s starting!”

“You know, Joy is actually a lot like you.”   
“What do you mean?”  
“Happy to the point of manic, and moderately overbearing.”   
“Hey! That’s the old me! New me is much more chill and understanding.”   
Sam could only nod. When Jocelyn first started hanging out with them, she was always, ALWAYS smiling. She laughed too much, sang in public, and skipped practically everywhere she went. She tried to order the group around too. But in time, and with enough support from Sam, Jocelyn learned to feel sorrow. And let others have a say of course.   
“Well, you used to be Sadness you know!”   
“Fair.” Samantha said, shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth and thinking back to when she was younger. She used to sit around in her room all day, actually wearing sweaters, and do practically nothing. She said a daily maximum of ten words to people who weren’t her family, and went through far too many tissue boxes to be considered healthy. But with the support of Jocelyn and her other friends, she managed to fight the uphill back to normalcy. Sure there were pitfalls. Sometimes she would lock herself in her room and sob into her pillow for hours. But Jocelyn always showed up, climbing up to, and then through her window. She never actually learned how. But that didn’t really matter. She would always sit down on Sam’s bed and rub her back, not saying a word. And she always brought snacks. When Sam could lift herself off the bed, they’d eat gummy bears and Oreos and watch Netflix movies on Jocelyn’s phone. Jocelyn really helped. She never treated Sam any differently or never danced around the subject, which was a breath of fresh air Sam didn’t know she needed. She still felt sad at times, but not in an all-consuming way. She refocused on the movie when she sensed an important event. Sure enough, Joy and Sadness were sucked up the memory tube.

They sat in silence, watching as Joy tried to ride up the tube alone. Sam noticed Jocelyn had the armrest in a deathgrip, and slowly pried her fingers off, intertwining them in her own.   
“How could she do that!” She whisper-yelled to Sam. “How could she just abandon Sadness there!”   
“She doesn’t understand.”   
“I don’t understand! And how could Sadness forgive her near-instantly!”   
“I would.” Sam whispered.   
Jocelyn went quiet, but squeezed Sam’s hand a little tighter.

As soon as Joy and Bing Bong fell into the Pit, Jocelyn knew Sam was going to cry. What she didn’t know was that she was going to cry. As the fluffy imaginary friend disappeared, she felt the tears dripping down her face. Wiping them with the back of her hand, she held Sadness tighter. They had stood up to hug 'cause they were in the back and the theater was empty anyway. Jocelyn forced herself to keep watching, intent on not missing anything even if it was surprisingly soul-crushing for a children’s movie.

Sam has calmed down by the time Joy had 3D printed all those lame boyfriends. As she untangled herself from Jocelyn’s embrace, she whispered “Thanks.”   
“Welcome.” Jocelyn replied as they sat back down.

They watched as Joy and Sadness made the first joint memory, uncomfortably aware of the other. And when the emotions leaned against each other and held hands, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Simultaneously turning to face the other, both of them forgot about the movie and just looked at each other. And then suddenly they were kissing. Neither of them knew who started it, but neither really cared either. They didn’t stop until the cleanup guy came in and (awkwardly) asked them to leave.   
They kissed more in the car, and when they came into class the next day holding hands, Adam demanded to know “Just what the Hell was that movie about?”


	14. Paranoia

Night time was Joy and Sadness’s favorite time. At night, they could be together without the prying eyes of Fear, Anger, and Disgust bearing down on their backs. They could act like more than friends. They could dance and kiss and all the other couple-y things they could think of. But the night time always ended. And when it did, so did their relationship. For the daytime hours, they could only be friends. But sometimes, they slipped little things through. Things that could be more-than-friendly. A quick kiss on the cheek. A too-long hug. A loving gaze. And their colleagues and friends seemed to not bat an eyelash. Which is what led to this night in particular.

“We can tell them!”   
“We can’t!”   
“Why not? They seemed fine with it!” Joy half-shouted, turning to face her girlfriend. This was not their first fight. While they did love each other, they were opposing emotions and didn’t always see eye-to-eye. But this fight was over an important matter. And both emotions could see the benefits in the other’s argument.   
“What if they aren’t? They’ll cast us out!”  
“But what if they are? We can stop hiding!”   
Both emotions stood staring into the other’s eyes, before Sadness sighed and looked down at her feet. “I just…I just don’t want us to be unhappy because we’re trapped in Long-Term, and then we start fighting and-”   
Joy cut her off with a quick kiss.   
“Sadness, my name is Joy. I literally can’t not be happy. And besides, imagine how much better it would be if we could be like this all the time?”   
Sadness gazed at her for a second, then nodded.   
“We’ll do it in the morning. For now, let’s just enjoy tonight.”  
The unspoken “It may be our last.” hung in the air like a toxic fog.

Joy and Sadness approached the controller, each gripping the other’s hands like a lifeline. Joy was opening her mouth to speak, but Sadness said “Uhm. Guys?” Joy shut her mouth, surprised. But she let her girlfriend take over.   
Fear Anger and Disgust turned to face them. For a beat no-one did anything. Then Sadness blurted out “Joy and I are dating!”   
Silence.   
There was a cheer. Joy opened the eyes she hadn’t realized she’s closed to see Disgust’s hand out to Fear and Anger, smirking as they put green bills in her hand.   
Surprisingly, the first thing Joy said was “Emotions don’t need money.”   
“Its representative.” Disgust said, pocketing the money.   
Joy was still confused, but luckily Sadness put the pieces together.  
“You guys were betting on us dating?!?” She accused the trio.   
“Oh no.” Fear said, straightening his rumpled clothes. “We all knew you were dating. I mean that lean-together-and-hold-hands thing you guys did when you came back? Jesus you might as well have painted us a sign. We were betting on when you would tell us.”   
The couple stood there, processing what they were experiencing. That is until Joy picked Sadness up and kissed her in front of the rest of the emotions.   
“Well I guess we’re gonna be seeing more of that.” Anger muttered into his paper, the headline reading “RILEY’S OWN EMOTIONS ARE GAY. WHAT ABOUT HER?”   
Joy pulled them apart, grinning. “I’m so glad we can do that in the sunlight.”  
Sadness only nodded and kissed her again.


	15. Heated

“I can’t believe we got snowed in”  
“It’ll be fine. We’ve got plenty of food, water and firewood, and they’re sending someone to come get us in a day or two”  
“I know. But I kinda wanted to go skiing and snowboarding and stuff. And now we can’t.”  
“True, but we can cuddle here by the fire and drink hot chocolate.”  
Joy nodded, conceding that this was actually very enjoyable. Not snowboarding enjoyable, but she’s happy. Especially when Sadness snuggles closer into her chest.   
They only had enough space in the area fire warmed for one of the couches or the chair. And neither of them felt like lugging the couch across the floor. So here they were. Sadness snuggled into Joy’s lap reading a book, Joy smelling her girlfriend’s hair (what? Her shampoo smells nice! Shut up) and playing a game on her smartphone. Both periodically reaching over to the table they dragged over to sip their hot chocolates.

“You know, I can’t believe you’re wearing this sweater.”  
“We’re on a mountain.”  
“We’re ten inches away from an open flame. I’m practically sweating”  
“Well take something off then.”  
Joy was about to point out she only had on her shirt and pants, but then she got a devious idea. Mock-shrugging, she said “OK.” and pulled her shirt over her head. She then wrapped her arms around Sadness’s stomach, and waited.   
2 minutes passed before Sadness noticed. She looked down at Joy’s arms on a whim, and frowned when she noticed that Joy’s sleeves weren’t where they should be. She sighed. “Joy, did you cut the sleeves off your shirt again?”  
“Nope.”  
“Well then where are they?”  
“With the shirt.”  
Finally comprehending, Sadness turned around just to confirm. Joy wasn’t wearing a shirt. Whipping her head back around, she hid her blush in her book and mumbled something about not being serious about taking something off.   
“But you know what? Now I’m cold again. And the shirt is aaaaaaallll the way over there. Hold still a second.”  
“Why should EEEP!”  
Joy had yanked the back of Sadness’s sweater up, and slid it over her own head. Now they were effectively in the same position before, but both wearing the sweater.  
“Y-y-you’re stretching it” Sadness stuttered out as Joy wrapped her arms around Sadness’s middle, the other woman’s skin feeling cool on her sweater-warmed body.   
“l’ll buy you a new one” Joy muttered into her neck, kissing her vein soon after.   
That sweater now holds fond memories for the both of them, and even though it was horribly stretched, they just couldn’t bring themselves to throw it out.


	16. Pocky

“So your next big date idea is that we eat these weird tube-candies?”  
“Yes!”  
Sadness sighed, then said “Well at least it’ll probably go better than that water thing.”  
“Hey! That was a great idea!”   
“You spat water all over me, yourself, and the floor.”   
“…touché. Let’s start.”  
Joy picked one up, putting the tip end in her mouth like a cigar. Sadness grabbed the other end with her teeth, and the game began.   
And then Joy opened her mouth wide, took all the piece Sadness didn’t have, and then chomped down again.   
And then the game ended.   
Sadness gave her girlfriend a withering look. Joy pretended not to notice and munched on her prize. Sadness took one of the sticks out of the wrapper and bopped Joy on the head with it.   
“Hey!”  
“You’ll live.” Sadness said, putting the next stick in her mouth. “Now com on”  
Of course this time, both of them tried what Joy did round one, which ended with the Pocky falling to the table and the pair ending up in a messy, wide mouthed kiss.   
“Ok, we can’t do that again.” Joy said as she picked up the stick and put it back in her mouth. Nodding, Sadness grabbed her end with her teeth.   
They did it again.   
“You did it again!” Joy accused, after a slightly longer kiss than the last one.   
“Well so did you!”   
“Again!”   
This pattern went on, each wide mouthed kiss lasting a little longer than the last until eventually the Pocky bag was sitting forgotten on the table and the pair were kissing on their bed.  
Separating and panting a little, Sadness said “I don’t think we did this right.”   
Grabbing her head and bringing it close, Joy whispered “Oh I think we’re doing it very right.” before pushing her down onto her back.


	17. Soon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Surprise Angst

Sadness hummed a little tune to herself as she roamed through the isles. It wasn’t an actual song really, just a bunch of notes she randomly strung together. Stopping, she grabbed a bouquet of flowers and rolled the cart over to the checkout.

Pulling up to the house, Sadness grabbed all the grocery bags and headed to the door. Opening it with her key, then kicking it closed behind her, she dropped all the groceries on the table. Except for the flowers of course. Those she gently laid down on a chair. After putting all the groceries away, Sadness looked over to the microwave clock. She had gotten home early.  
‘Oh, why the Hell not?’ she thought to herself. Instead of waiting, she could go to Joy now. Sadness always knew where she was this time of day anyway.

Pulling her car over, Sadness walked across the grass. She never really got used to the silence of this place. Stopping, she sat down in front of the headstone, leaning against it as if it were a wall. She put the flowers between her feet.  
“Hey Joy. How’s it going?”  
Silence.  
“I got promoted today. A lot of money rolling in know. We’d be able to take that vacation we were thinking about in only a week or two’s time.”  
A woodpecker bored into a tree.  
“I got you flowers.” She said, choking up a little. “Daffodils. Your favorite.”  
Looking at the flowers reminded her of the one’s she put in Joy’s hospital bed, which dragged her back into the memory. She was holding Joy’s hand. It was so weak, almost like a skeletons. And she was crying. Why did she have to be crying? She couldn’t see Joy clearly. And the pictures she had helped her remember a little less each day.  
“Don’t worry Sadness.” Joy said, faintly squeezing her hand.  
“It’ll be OK.”  
“Soon.”  



	18. Speed Round

“I can’t believe you’re doing this.”  
“What? Taking my gay, single, lonely sister to a place made for lesbians to meet each other? You’re right. What could I be thinking?”  
“Hey! I’m not lonely!”  
“I heard you trying to sing a duet with your dog.”  
“…I resent that.”  
“Noted.”

Sadness slowly realized how depressing her life was as she filled out this match sheet. She lives alone with three cats, has a grand total of two friends, and spends her free time silently reading. Physical exercise is few and far between, and she only wears sweaters. On her torso that is. She wears pants. Wearing nothing but a sweater sounds really gross. Well, in public at least. With the right person…  
Which was really why she was here. She didn’t actually expect to find a date, but she needed to start socializing with people, before she forgot how to use her voice all together. Handing in her card, she took a seat and waited for the matching process to begin.

“Alright folks! Head to your tables!”  
Joy took one final sip of her lemonade, then looked down at her card and headed to table one. Let the games begin.  
4 tables in, Joy was out of both lemonade and hope for her dating life. There was that one tall woman that couldn’t stop talking about roses, that one that wouldn’t speak at all, and the one that threatened to cut her fingers off with a pair of scissors if she tried to take the only relatively normal person she’d seen so far, actress with brown hair. As she sat down at the halfway mark of her escapade, the first thing she noticed was the blue hair. The exact shade her’s was. How hadn’t she seen that earlier?  
“Nice hair.” She said, attempting to break the ice.  
“Thanks. You too.”  
Joy waited for the short woman in the sweater to say more, but she did not.  
“So…how’s it going?”  
The woman sniffled, and her eyes began to water. Surprised, Joy rushed around the table with her napkin and began blotting the tears away.  
“Oh my gosh! Are you OK? I’m so sorry-”  
“N-no no. It wasn’t you. It’s j-just that none of these people seem right!”  
“Hey. Don’t worry. I’m sure it’ll be OK. Here. How about this? Two minutes isn’t enough time to get to know someone anyway. Why don’t you and I go on an actual date?”  
“R-really?”  
“Yeah! It’ll be great!” Joy said as the buzzer sounded them to their next table.  
“Here.” Joy said, grabbing a Sharpie and frantically scribbling her number down on the back of Sadness’s hand. “Give me a call. Any where you want to go, I’m good.”  
“It’s time to move madam!”  
“Yes I get it! Give me another moment.”  
“It’s supposed to be two minutes time per person.”  
“Lady, two minutes is all the time you have left.” Joy said, standing up and getting ready to go acquaint this woman with her right hook. But a hand rested on her arm and stopped her in her tracks.  
“Bloody knuckles are not attractive additions to a date.” Sadness said, giving Joy’s arm a squeeze. Counting to ten, Joy nodded. “So you’re good with our date then?”  
“Absolutely.”  



	19. Miscommunication

Sadness fidgeted in front of the frozen foods, trying to quickly decipher which one Joy would prefer. Her girlfriend of 3 months was still in line, so she grabbed one and ran, trying to make it back before Joy got there. But she was too late. Oh man was she late. Not only had Joy gotten to the register, but she was talking to the cashier. And laughing. And touching her hand. And blushing. The woman had green hair, which she frequently flipped over her shoulder. Sadness felt her emotions spiral out of control, jealousy and distress clouding her thoughts. She silently walked back up to Joy and put the item on the counter, noting how both women went silent and stared at her. She shrank further back into her sweater.

Joy had a feeling something was up ever since they got into the car to get back to Sadness’s place. She tried several times to start a conversation, but each one fell flat. When Sadness walked her out, her eyes never left the floor.  
“What did I do cuz? What CAN I do?”  
“I don’t know Joy.” Disgust said into the phone. “Are you sure she didn’t hear about that rash we were talking about? The one you have on your-”  
“SHE MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT. AND I INTEND TO KEEP IT THAT VVAY.”  
“Well then I’ve got nothing. Now can I go to bed?”

Sadness looked out the window at the downpour outside. The sky had opened up an hour ago, and it was still going strong. She was three hours past her usual bedtime, but she couldn’t sleep. Until she heard her apartment buzzer go off. Surprised, she went over to the reply box.  
“Yes? Who is it?”  
“IT’S ME SADNESS!” Joy called over the rain. “CAN I PLEASE COME IN?”  
Mortified at the freezing rain the woman must be experiencing, Sadness quickly buzzed her in. When Joy arrived at her front door, she was holding her jacket over her head like a makeshift umbrella.  
“What are you doing here this late?” Sadness asked.  
“I know something is going on with you. And I have to know what, because I care about you.”  
The matter-of-fact was Joy said it surprised Sadness. Indisputable.  
“Who was that lady at the checkout today?” Sadness whispered.  
“Huh?” Joy asked, leaning in closer as a wordless way asking her to speak up.  
“The lady with green hair. Who was she?”  
“Oh you mean Disgust? She’s my cousin.”  
Sadness blinked.  
“What? But the way you guys stopped talking and stared at me when I got there.”  
“Oh. That. That’s because we were talking about…the rash. On my head.”  
“Huh?” Sadness asked, gazing at Joy with her question mirrored in her eyes.  
“I have a skin condition. On my head. That’s why I dye my hair blue. To cover it up.”  
“…I kinda like the blue.” Sadness muttered, barely audible over the pounding rain.  
The rain. Joy was still standing out in the hallway, dripping wet.  
“Come in! Come in. You need to dry off.”  
“We’re you jealous of Disgust?”  
“….maybe a lil.”  
“Don’t worry. She’s got nothing on you.”  
“Get inside already.”  
“I can head back-”  
“In this weather? The Hell you can. Come on, you can take the couch if you have to.”  
Joy didn’t take the couch.  



	20. Emphasis

Sadness never really got all those things the poets they make you read in high school were talking about. She never fell for someone so hard her head got cloudy and she couldn’t speak. She needed more specific instructions than “Follow your heart.”  
Or at least, she used to. When the tall woman with the blue hair walked up to the counter, she nearly passed out and cracked her skull on the way down. This woman was drop dead gorgeous. But Sadness reigned herself in. She knew the story of really attractive people you had no emotional connection to all too well.   
“Hi. I ordered the book, ‘I Am the Messenger’ to be sent to my house and it never came.”  
Damn it all to Hell.   
She was nice the whole time. And she laughed. At. EVERYTHING. And it wasn’t some sarcastic, asshole laugh. She was the human embodiment of happiness and sunshine. And from start to finish, the only thing Sadness learned was her name (Joy. HOW FITTING), and her address. And that’s what led to her sitting here at 1 AM at her desk, head in hands, staring at a blank piece of paper.   
'Jeez. This is harder than all those old poets made it look.’   
'Just start with her name you fool!’   
So she wrote “Joy,” in the top left corner, and immediately got stuck again. 'Come on. This is creepy and weird. You don’t even know if she’s dating anyone. Oh God what if she’s dating someone? WHO WOULDN’T DATE HER SHE’S TOTALLY DATING SOMEONE.’  
'Snap out of it. You’ve at least gotta write it all out. Look at you. You’re talking to yourself. In your head.’   
'I don’t know how!’   
'Ok. Get a picture of her in your mind.’ 'Right.’   
'Good. Now write things.’   
'What things?’   
'Any things! Just write!’   
Sadness wrote.

She stood, staring at Joy’s mailbox at 3 AM wondering how her life could get so difficult in one afternoon. How could one single woman throw her total equilibrium out the freaking window? That woman…was coming up her sidewalk.   
'Oh shit oh shit.’  
Sadness had always liked to think she could react in a crisis, but apparently not. All she could do was stare as Joy walked to her mailbox. Carrying a baseball bat.   
'Please God if I die at least let me see her face one last time first.’  
'Wow. You are far gone.’  
But no one would lose their lives this night. When Joy saw who it was, she dropped the bat to her side and said “I’m sorry, there’s just been this bear around here lately and I thought you were it. Didn’t want to scare it away with a flashlight.”   
“YOU WERE GOING TO TAKE ON A BEAR WITH A BASEBALL BAT?!?!” Is what Sadness meant to say. Instead, she just stuttered out “Unk”, shoved her letter into Joy’s hands, and bolted down the street back to her parked car.   
“Hi. I ordered the book, 'I Am the Messenger’ to be sent to my house and it never came.”  
Sadness looked up, not believing what she was hearing.   
“But I got something much better instead.”


	21. Sneak Attack

When Joy and Sadness had their child, all of the couple’s friends swore the earth shook. Joy and Riley together were a nigh unstoppable force. If Sadness weren’t around to be a grown up, their house might have burned to the ground. Riley could get herself deep into mischief. And Joy was usually nothing less than an accomplice.   
“Psst! Hey Mommy!” Riley whisper yelled at Joy.   
“What is it dear?” Joy asked, putting down her grading pen and looking over to Riley. Riley danced over to Joy and whispered something in her ear. Joy grinned, nodded to Riley, then they both snuck out of the room.

Sadness knew this day would come. Her two girls, betraying her. But she was prepared. She had two weapons in her arsenal. Her mother senses could be used to a certain degree, but Joy had them too. That’s why she had her secret weapon, not even one Joy knew about. Her weapon: her sweater. The perfect armor, the thick yarn made it practically tickle proof. So when Joy and Riley snuck around the corner, she was ready. She let them get close to her, thinking they were still undetected. And when they attacked her sides, she gripped them and giggled, pretending to try and keep them away. But when they let their guard down, she struck. Twirling around, she got the spot no one could resist. Armpits. Riley was immediately down, paralyzed by laughter. But Joy was an adult, and she had seen her fair share of tickle fights. But Joy had a tickle zone no one else knew about, it’s discovery bringing one of their pre-Riley lovemaking nights to a grinding halt. Even as Sadness reached for it, Joy’s eyes widened and she said “You wouldn’t da-”   
Sadness scratched behind Joy’s ears.   
And that was all it took. Soon both females were on the floor, begging for mercy as Sadness tormented them, switching from their feet to their arms to their stomachs to keep them off balance.   
“Who’s the Queen?” She called out, grinning at their laughter.   
“You are Momma!”  
“You dear! It’s you!”  
“That’s right it is.” Sadness replied before ending her assault. “Now,” she said, hauling them to their feet. “you BOTH have homework to do.” Joy and Riley slunk off to their separate rooms, defeated.   
But no Queen rules forever.


	22. Blurred

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Alcohol mentions.

Sadness glanced at the clock again, nerves showing through her eyes. Sighing, she gave up on trying to read her book and instead went to the kitchen to prep a snack. She didn’t really like Joy and Disgust’s “Girl’s Night” or bar hopping party. But she also knew that Joy needed to get out and live her life. She knew that if she asked, the taller woman would gladly stay in with her, but Joy would start to go insane in all the stillness and quiet. She needed to be somewhere loud and flashy every now and then to match her own speed. Clubs were the most logical option, but Joy steadfastly refused to set foot in one. She wouldn’t say why, just that “She wasn’t interested.” Sadness and Disgust didn’t push it. So it was settled that bars were the best choice. Sadness looked at the microwave clock against her own wishes. They were never out this late though. ‘Where are you guys?’

Joy staggered down the sidewalk, surprised she hadn’t fallen over or at least been stopped by an officer for barely being able to stand she was so smashed. She had had ten too many, and shouldn’t even have been able to see, much less walk herself home. But Lady Luck must have been smiling down upon her. ‘Unlike earlier today’ she thought to herself, her face twisting into a self-depreciating grin. ‘I’m staying at a hotel tonight.’ Her very inebriated mind said. But her legs still had their common sense, and instead carried her home, no matter how hard she protested.

Sadness didn’t hear the key scratching against the doorknob over the sound of her carrots crunching in her ears. But she definitely heard the BANG of the door hitting the wall behind it with tremendous force. Quickly swallowing, she rushed out to the entryway hoping to see Joy in the doorway. She wasn’t disappointed. But she also knew something was up. Joy was leaning so heavily on the door you’d think it was a live preserver in an ocean. And her eyes were clouded over, not focusing on anything. “Joy!” Sadness said, rushing over to help. Or trying. Joy put her hand up, stopping Sadness in her tracks. Leveraging herself off the door, she mumbled “Hey Sadness” on her way past, intent on getting into bed and passing out. “Joy what happened?” Sadness asked, worried about her girlfriend’s condition.   
“’S nothing. Stayed out a little later. Had a little more.”  
“A little later? Joy it’s three hours later! Please tell me what happened.”   
Even in her current state, Joy new that she was at a crossroads in their relationship. If she didn’t bite this bullet now, things between her and Sadness would never be the same again. And she wasn’t going to let that happen.

Sadness knew that it was biologically impossible to get alcohol out of your system any other way then time, but she could swear she was witnessing otherwise. Joy stood up straighter and her eyes sharpened up. She wasn’t totally sober, but there was vast improvement from just a few seconds ago.   
“I came by your job today.”  
“I didn’t se-”  
“Ssshhh.” Joy said, attempting to put her finger over Sadness’s mouth. She instead put her palm on Sadness’s face, but the idea was clear.   
“I came by, to give you this.” Joy said, pulling something out of her pocket. Sadness looked at it and her eyes immediately fogged up. It was a bracelet made of plastic beads. Nothing expensive, Joy probably could’ve made it at a hotel gift shop, but it was beautiful, and only Joy could put so much feeling into a little thing. The beads were one color, blue (her favorite), but each shade of blue varied from bead to bead, creating a stunning gradient effect on the overall piece. Joy put it in Sadness’s hands, but kept talking.   
“I wanted to surprise you, but as I was walking by a window, I saw you. I saw you talking with some guy. He was tall and skinny and you were laughing and smiling.”  
Fear. She was working with Fear that day, and he told her lots of stories of how he was afraid of many things, many of the stories comedic in their foolishness. Like the time he sprinted a block and a half to get away from a pigeon.   
“Oh Joy-”  
“Shhh sh sh! I know,” Joy swallowed, pushing through her shame. “I know, logically, that’s not who you are. I know you’d never do that. But I got so” she clenched her fists “JEALOUS. I wanted to punch that guy. How dare he make my girlfriend smile? No one else was allowed to do that.” She looked up at Sadness. “And I knew that I couldn’t be that person. The jealous, possessive asshole. So I left and I went out to drink early and when Disgust called in sick, I still didn’t head home. I don’t know why, I was just afraid that…” She could t finish the thought. “I was afraid.”   
“Oh Joy.” Sadness said, putting the bracelet on and wrapping her arms around Joy. “It’s OK. I love this gift, and I accept your apology.” She wiped the tears that had somehow found their way onto Joy’s face off, saying “I’ll never think of Fear that way. He’s not my type.”   
Joy, cracking a smile, said “Tall and skinny isn’t your type?” making a play at her own fairly tall, lanky frame. “No. Non-Joys aren’t my type.” Sadness said, kissing Joy’s nose, helping her to her feet and leading her down the hall to their room.   
“That was the smooth af dear.”   
“I cannot believe you just said af. That was a phrase that came out of your mouth. You’re going to have to live with that for the rest of your life.”   
Joy giggled again, laying down in their bed and mumbling “Goo'night…dea. Love….ou…”   
Sadness smiled at her, then went to go put her carrots back in the fridge.   
She never took that blue bracelet off.


	23. Spit Take

Sadness looked between the glass in front of her and Joy’s maniac grin.   
“So you want me to what?”  
Joy feigned an exasperated sigh, saying “We both drink the water, keep it in our mouths, and then try to make the other laugh. The one who spits out the water is the loser.”   
Sadness sat silently for a few more seconds before she said “Alright, I’ll do it. But full disclosure, this is the worst date night idea you’ve ever had.”  
“Noted.” Joy replied before downing the contents of her glass, puffing up her cheeks. Turning back to face Sadness, she almost lost immediately. Sadness’s face with puffed out cheeks nearly made her heart pop like a balloon. But she regained control of herself and tried to think of ways to make the very embodiment of unhappiness laugh.   
Sadness sat in thought for a while before it hit her. She’s practically won already. She’s playing against JOY. The woman laughs when wind blows leaves off of trees. But it couldn’t just be anything that let her win. It had to be big. If Sadness was going to make Joy laugh, it was going to be special or so help her God she would spit all this water down her own sweater. Interrupted from her thoughts, she focused on Joy dancing around the room doing various animal impressions. ‘Cute’ Sadness thought 'but not even close babe’. She made sure to convey this in the look she gave Joy. Pursing her lips, Joy say back down again, tapping her fingers while she thought. Fear did tapping like that sometimes. Fear! 'Got it’ Sadness thought. Catching Joy’s eyes with her own, she brought the taller emotion back to reality. Raising her hand in a lazy gesture, she concentrated.

Joy never stood a chance. As soon as Fear came screeching out of his room soaked to the bone with rainwater, it was all over. She snorted, desperate to last a few more seconds, but eventually she caved, spitting water all over the table, Sadness, and herself as she laughed like a madwoman. Sadness, glad to have won, spat her water at Joy for revenge. “Sorry Fear.” she called over her back. “I needed to make Joy laugh.”   
“You could have chosen literally ANYTHING. And you went with drenching me with a rain cloud?”   
“I know. I’m sorry. But look at how well it worked.”   
Sure enough, Joy was laying on the floor in the fetal position still laughing, seemingly uncaring that she was laying in the puddle of water she and Sadness had created.   
Fear looked down at the yellow emotion, sighing and saying “Yeah. Ok that did work really well.”  
“EVERYONE GET THE F*** TO BED!” Anger’s voice raged out of his room.   
“He really loves those new swears.” Fear muttered before shaking himself off and heading back to change.   
“I’ll make this up to you!” Sadness called after him, helping Joy up and leading her to their room.   
The next day she let Fear into her room for ten minutes with freedom to do what he chose. After the ten minutes, she re-entered to find everything nailed to the ceiling.


	24. Coming to Terms

Joy was unable to move her own limbs. Or mouth. Or even her eyes. She’s forced to sit and watch as her body looks Sadness right in the eyes and say “I’m sorry. Riley needs to be happy.” And shoot up the tube, watching Sadness’s shattered look disappear into the distance.

Joy woke up screaming. In a blind panic, she practically broke down the door to her room and rushed over to Sadness’s. Throwing the door open, her heart stopped. Sadness wasn’t there. Joy’s knees gave out and she fell to the ground, lost in sorrow. But then a hand laid itself on her shoulder and a soft voice asked “Joy. Are you OK?”   
Right. Sadness was sleeping in her room now. She probably woke up the blue emotion with her shouting. Guilt wracked her system, but she just forced another grin and said “Yeah! Sorry. Just a nightmare.” Sadness took her hand and gently led her over to their room. Sitting her down on the edge of the bed, Sadness turned in the bedside lamp and took a seat next to her. “Joy. You’ve been having these nightmares for weeks now. I understand that you may not want to tell me, and I respect your privacy, but please Joy. I’m worried about you. What’s wrong?” Throughout Sadness’s words, Joy gradually started to tear up. And after she had finished, Sadness put her hand on Joy’s leg. Reacting to the stimulus, Joy looked over at Sadness, and that was her final mistake. She saw nothing but concern and caring in Sadness’s eyes, and all the emotions that were in the room (heh. Funny) overloaded her. She started crying, got off the bed, and knelt down in front of Sadness, already begging for forgiveness before even speaking. “I-I left you.” she choked out around her sobs.   
“What? You never left me Joy.” Sadness said, concern in her voice.   
“In Long Term Memory. I t-tried to go up the tube. I tried to leave you behind!” Joy wailed out, thinking that Sadness may very well hate her now, but being unable to take her face out of Sadness’s sweater. Sadness waited in silence for agonizing seconds, thinking about what Joy said. Finally, she put her hand under Joy’s chin and lifted her shining eyes up to meet hers.   
“What you did back then was wrong. Leaving me behind like that wasn’t right.”   
Joy tried to stop herself from shaking, telling herself she deserved everything she got. It didn’t make it easier.   
“But you’ve grown since then. You’ve learned and changed. And I forgive you for what you’ve done.”  
Joy, unable to do much else, started bawling again. But now Sadness pulled her into the bed and held her while she got through the process of forgiving herself.


	25. Due Date

“Joy, would you please sit down!”   
“Honey what’s wrong?”   
“JOY YOUR DUE DATE IS LESS THAN A WEEK AWAY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP MOVING.”   
When they chose Joy to carry their baby(actually THEIR baby! Science is awesome), Sadness thought it would be a chance for Joy to take a break. To slow down.   
Oh the mistake she made. You couldn’t keep Joy down with an 18 wheeler.   
Joy continued to bustle around the house the entire pregnancy, giving Sadness a minor hernia each time she got to close to a desk, only for her to gracefully dance away. Jesus, aren’t pregnant women supposed to be stuck in bed? Or at least have mood swings? The only thing about Joy that changed was the size of her belly. Not that Sadness minded. Sure she worried enough for both of them, but those moments when she was entering a room and caught Joy rubbing her bigger-than-normal midsection and smiling were worth more than a world made of gold.   
A sharp squeak brought Sadness out of her thoughts. Refocusing, she saw Joy had stopped on a dime, and the squeaking noise was her shoe. Sadness looked into Joy’s eyes, and she knew. No words needed to be said. She jumped up, grabbed Joy’s hand, and calmly escorted her to their car.

Joy’s labor was the most painful thing either of them had ever experienced. For Joy, the reason was fairly obvious. She was effectively pushing a watermelon out of her birth canal. It was the most painful day for Sadness, however, because Joy broke three of the bones in her hand during the process. She couldn’t actually hold her child for a week after the surgery(something Joy apologized incessantly for and promised to make it up to her). She refused to let the doctors take her out though. She just worked her broken hand out of Joy’s’ grip, and let the taller woman grab her arm instead. Sadness was even worried for a while she’s break that too. But Joy refused both a C-section and an epidural, even after the broken hand thing. She insisted she could do it. And she did. After hours of pushing and screaming and no breaks, Joy was holding her baby and the doctors were bodily dragging Sadness from the room. “The name we agreed on?” She called out, hooking her foot on the doorframe for the last few seconds she needed.  
“Of course!” Joy called back as they unhooked Sadness and took her away. Turning to their baby, she said “Welcome to be world, little Riley.”

-

“Joy, please sit down.”  
Joy, ignoring Sadness, continues to pace the room and bite her fingernails. “You’re due date is a week past, dear. I’m nervous!”   
“Joy.”   
At Sadness’s tone, Joy rushes over, ready to do anything Sadness asks. Sadness would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy having this control over her living hurricane of a wife. And sure, before Joy was always willing to help. But when she became pregnant, Joy practically became her slave. Anything done, no questions. Sadness was a little worried she could ask Joy to kill someone and Joy would reply “How do you want it done?”   
Sadness raised her hand. Joy took it and prepared to help Sadness up, but Sadness pulled her down instead, leaning her head on Joy’s shoulder.   
“Breathe. Relax. The baby will come soon.”   
No sooner had Joy followed the instructions than Sadness gripped her arm like a life preserver.   
“Looks like she will be here much sooner than you think.” Sadness said, giving Joy a smile. But when she saw the panic starting to form in Joy’s eyes, she grabbed her head and said “Calm down. It’s OK. We’ve practiced this. Now, help me up.”

Joy had never heard Sadness scream like that. I mean yeah, there were the times they were having sex. Sadness screamed plenty during that. But this scream was very different. It sounded like someone had stuck a hot poker in her stomach. Which might’ve been what it felt like for all Joy knew. She begged Sadness to take a C-section, or at least an epidural. Interestingly, Sadness wasn’t really in the mood for talking at the time. So she just sat there, holding her wife’s hand and making sure she didn’t pass out. It felt like it took half a century to Joy. For Sadness it must have felt like eons. But eventually it was over. The umbilical cord was cut, and Sadness was holding their newborn baby. Joy desperately wanted to go to her, but she wanted to save the look on Sadness’s face forever first. Taking a quick picture(that she would later make her phone wallpaper for the next 9+ years), she went over to Sadness and stood next to her.   
“Any last minute qualms about the name?” She asked, looking adoringly at her child.   
“Of course not.” Joy replied.   
“Good. I wouldn’t let you change it anyway. Riley is the perfect name.”


	26. Accidents Can Lead to Amazing Things

Everyone needs time to wind down. You can’t spend all of your time awake moving. You’d lose your mind. How much time people need, however, is relative to the person. For example, Joy apparently has to get up after half an hour of relaxing. And in contrast, Sadness needed at least two hours of chill time immediately after work to get back to her comfort zone. But what happens when one of them gets pulled out of her comfort zone a little.

Joy tried to fidget in a way that Sadness wouldn’t notice, but of course she did. Sadness put her hand on Joy’s head and slowly began drawing circles in the blue spiky hair. “You don’t have to do this if you want to.”  
“No no no! I do!” Joy replied hastily. “I’ve just never really sat still for his long. It might be getting to my head.”  
“That’s OK.” Sadness whispered back. Joy smiled, and snuggled in closer to Sadness. It struck her once again how very different they were. But unlike the various other times she would realize this when she would smile and move on, now she held onto that thought. She let it stir in her mind. And maybe that’s why she giggled and said “Imagine what our kids would be like.”  
To Sadness’s credit, she took this sudden mention of little ones very well. She didn’t stop rubbing Joy’s hair, and she didn’t tense up. She did always figure Joy would be the first one to mention kids, she just didn’t know when. “We’re having kids?”  
Joy’s face flushed an adorable pink (in Sadness’s opinion) when she realized what she said. But she didn’t backpedal. Sticking to her guns, she replied in an uncharacteristically quiet voice “I would want to have kids with you.”  
“How?” Sadness said. She made sure she kept the hair rubbing constant. Maybe it wasn’t right, but Joy was unknowingly taking a test right now. A test Sadness desperately hoped she passed.  
“I don’t really know. Any way you want. There’s adoption obviously. But I’ve heard of invitrofertilization, where they take half of one woman’s DNA and use it to impregnate an egg. If we did it that way, it would actually genetically be our child.”  
“Any way? What about any when?”  
“Any when. I would never want to force you into something you don’t want. Even if it’s never.”  
Sadness gave up on rubbing Joy’s hair to pull her closer. She had passed the test.  
“Well, I wouldn’t say never, but it’s not going to be now.“ "Whatever you want baby.” Joy said, loving the way the pet name rolled off her tongue. She could get used to this down time.


	27. Glide and Pivot

“It’s OK Sadness, you’ll be alright. I’ll be right here to catch you if you fall.”   
Sadness looked up at Joy, standing there on the floor with her hand out like they do in those romance movies. Blushing, she took Joy’s hand and let herself be carefully pulled out onto the floor.   
Waiting until their momentum faded away, Joy said “Ok. We’ll start off with starting off” and did one of those giggles that sounded like Christmas Bells. Sadness nodded, then watched intently as Joy let go of her hands, then positioned herself to be sideways to Sadness. “We’ll start with starting motion while on the ‘ice’. Now, take your foot and act like you’re walking. You’re gonna slide around in place a little, and it’ll look silly, but you’ll gain enough forward momentum to get started.” Joy said, demonstrating the steps as she said them. She then glided back over in front of Sadness and said “OK, you go.” Nodding, Sadness tried to imitate Joy’s motions. And she had it going, for a while. But then her foot slid back a little too far, and suddenly the ground was rushing up to her. But then she felt a pair of arms on the shoulders, and looked up to see Joy grinning down at her. “That was great for your first try!” She said as she lifted the shorter emotion back to her standing position.   
“Really?” Sadness said, regaining her balance and looking up at Joy through her glasses. “Yes! You’ll be at it in no time!” Sadness nodded, then took a deep breath and tried again.

Sadness looked up at Joy as she slid unsteadily across the floor to the yellow emotion. “Excellent!” Joy said, taking Sadness’s hands in her own and beginning to glide them at an easy pace around the room. “Now to maintain your momentum. Just glide, and pivot. Glide, and pivot.” Sadness caught on to the idea quickly, but a new problem presented itself. She and Joy were pivoting in different directions. Neither willing to let go of the other, they struggled with this problem until they both met the other’s eyes. Sadness’s mind stopped giving her thoughts as she got lost in those eyes. Some amount of time passed, she’d never know how much exactly, before she realized that they were pivoting in sync. Joy must’ve realized it at the same time because she let out a little squeaky laugh, turned Sadness around, then wrapped her arms around Sadness before whispering “You drive, I’ll steer.” into her ear. Normally Sadness would’ve been flooded with nerves and negative thoughts at this sudden responsibility. But maybe it was the time she spent looking into Joy’s eyes, or the way the emotion’s arms were wrapped around her waist, or maybe she was just becoming more confident, because she just thought ‘OK’ and started gliding and pivoting. It was a little awkward to begin, her legs kept hitting Joy’s. But, just like everything else it seemed, they developed a perfect rhythm that let them both work in harmony. Soon they were serenely gliding across Headquarter’s floor, enjoying the other’s presence without saying a word. Again time passed, again Sadness wouldn’t know how much, but eventually the moment had to end. Joy steered them back to the controller, where the floor regained its traction, then stopped them and helped Sadness off. “I have to do this more often.” Sadness said as they walked back to their rooms. “I mean,” she said, looking down to the floor, “can we do that again?” Joy gave her one of those smiles and said “I wouldn’t give it up for the world.”


	28. Proposition

Could emotions get married? Technically they were part of Riley’s mind, and their sole purpose was to make her feel things. So is marriage between two emotions allowed? Joy looked down at the box in her palm. Did she care? She took another lap around her, well really their, room to clear her head and even out her breathing. Riley had just failed her U.S. History test, so she wouldn’t be needed for a while. This was the perfect opportunity to get herself together. But no matter how much she tried, Joy couldn’t calm herself down. She felt like she was standing on top of all those Prettyboys at the edge of the pit all over again. She looked down and opened the box. The ring inside reminded her why she was here. It was a seasonal design Riley saw at a mall once, but Joy made certain to save the memory because Sadness said the blue gems running down the sides looked like tears. She then grabbed Joy in a hug and refused to let go for an hour. Sadness said it was the only way to stop herself from crying. Using the memory to bolster her resolve, Joy put the box inside her bedside table and went back out to the controller. She’d do it tonight. In private. It was their moment. No need to share it with the others.  
As the controller dimmed down, everyone said their goodbyes and headed off to their respective rooms. As Joy was quietly closing the door to theirs, Sadness was already stretching and yawning, halfway into the bed. Joy rushed over to her nightstand and took out the ring, careful to hold it at an angle that Sadness couldn’t see.  
“Sadness?”  
“What’s up Joy?”  
“I, uh, we’ve been dating for a while-”  
“Are you breaking up with me?” Sadness said, tears forming in her eyes.  
“No no no!” Joy said, waving the hand that wasn’t holding the ring behind her back. “Quite the opposite in fact. Sadness, I don’t know if this is allowed, or even if it matters because we’re just emotions in Riley’s mind, but” she brought the box out from behind her back and got down on one knee “will you spend the rest of Riley’s life with me?”  
Sadness stared at her for an eternal half-second, then started bawling and wrapped Joy in a bone-crushing hug. “Of course I will! Of course of course!” Joy could only smile and hug Sadness back. Until the blue emotion pulled away. “There’s nothing in the rules about emotions getting married.”  
“Good.” Joy said, sliding the ring on Sadness’s finger. “Then we can make them as we go.”

-

“You need me to WHAT?”  
“Just keep Disgust and Anger away from my apartment OK? I have something really important planned, and I can’t have any distractions.”  
Fear, trembling slightly, replied “You know how hard those two are to control!”  
“Oh I know, I do. But I just need a few hours. Set them up watching Chopped or something. That’ll hold them. Thanks Fear!” Joy replied, rushing out the door before Fear could say no. The tall, skinny man sighed and went to mentally prepare himself for a long night.  
“I’m back Joy.” Sadness called into the apartment, shutting the door and hanging her coat on the rack. Kicking off her shoes, she said “Man, this one guy came up to the counter and asked if we had nail guns. I kindly reminded him that this was a bookstore and…” Sadness trailed off, turning the corner into the living room and stopping dead in the doorway. All the furniture had been moved to make room for a table set square in the middle, candles lit and her favorite song playing on the sound system. She started to get nervous, feeling horribly underdressed for the situation. But then her eyes caught Joy and all of her worries left instantly. Joy was practically in her pajamas. A ratty old Mickey Mouse t-shirt, and a pair of lounge pants with at least two holes in them. And of course the smile that could power the city of Boston for 12 hours. “At first I was worried about what I wore, then I realized that it was my event, the dress code could be whatever I wanted.” Joy said, sweeping around the table and taking Sadness’s arm. The bespectacled woman couldn’t help but giggle at the way Joy was acting so seriously in clothes she’d seen the woman roll out of bed wearing. “Now, my lady,” Joy said, snapping out of her train of thought. “let us dine.”  
“Joy, you’ve always been a fairly good cook, but that was some of the best food I’ve ever had.” Sadness said, wiping her mouth with her napkin and leaning back in her chair, stretching her arms above her head. “Thank you. About the nice food…” Joy said, getting out from her chair and walking over to Sadness’s side of the table. “I-I actually had another reason for dressing down like this. I want you to know that all this” Joy gestures to the table, still set with nice silverware and burning candles “can be an everyday thing if that’s what you want.” Joy got down on one knee. “Sadness, will you marry me?” Joy asked, pulling a box out of her pocket and opening the lid, revealing a beautiful custom ring. Blue and yellow gems threaded through each other on the band like interwoven yarn, a diamond set on the top. Sadness definitely felt her tears now, but she didn’t want Joy to get the wrong idea so she quickly said “Absolutely!” She stood up, grabbing Joy and bringing her up too. Then Sadness tilted her head to the side and kissed Joy, trying to tell her all the happiness she felt without saying a word.  



	29. Drift

Drift compatible.   
Those words had haunted Joy her entire Jaeger Academy career. Some people were like freaking multi-tools, and some could just drift with anyone. Well, anyone except Joy. No matter who it was she got into a simulation with, her “overbearing personality” and “incessant optimism” could not be tolerated by any of her drift partners. The only reason she was still around was because of her scores. Top 1%. The program still insisted they could find her a partner, but Joy saw the writing on the walls, and heard the whispers in the halls. The other students were looking at her funny, saying things like “incompatible” and “waste of money”. Joy knew that if she couldn’t find a partner soon, they’d have to kick her out or face a full on mutiny. Despite knowing all this, sticking true to her name, Joy stayed upbeat. She always made sure she had a smile on her face. Because if Joy didn’t have her optimism, what else would she have?

The alarm next to her bed continued to go unused as Joy opened her eyes at 6:02. “Getting closer old friend!” she told the inanimate object, giving it a pat before walking over to her dresser to grab her clothes and head to her shower. Enjoying the hot water running over her skin, Joy heard her roommate’s alarm going off, followed by the signature “Ugh.” A padding noise, then a banging on the door. “Other people use this room too!”   
“You got up less than a minute ago!”   
“…Don’t leave your hair clogging the drain!” The advantage of having Disgust as a roommate, everything was clean. The downside, nothing was clean enough. Joy sighed, glancing down at the spotless drain.   
As she was walking through the halls to grab her breakfast, the Academy headmaster caught up with her. And then passed her, but not before he shoved a piece of paper into her hands. Turning it over, she saw another drift test scheduled. For today. In 10 minutes! Quietly cursing the headmaster’s name, Joy picked up her pace, now running breakneck speed down the halls.

“I’m just saying, the name does kinda fit.”   
“Doesn’t mean it’s a good name!”   
Fear sighed, preparing himself to launch into this argument yet again.  
“We’re all named after emotions, so the rest of the school calling our group ‘The Emotions’ was kind of inevitable.”   
Anger stood up from his chair, not gaining much more height, prepared to give Fear a piece of his mind when Joy blurred by, nabbing the apple off his tray and tossing a “Thanks A!” over her shoulder in her wake. Anger sighed, desperately wishing he could get aggravated at Joy. But this happened so much it wasn’t even worth it. He sat down again, and muttered “It’s still stupid.”

Tossing the apple core in a nearby trash can, Joy slowed to a walk right outside the door to the Drift Test room. Checking her watch, she grinned. 2 minutes to spare. Smoothing out her dress and checking her hair in her phone screen, Joy took a deep breath and pushed open the door. “Hi guys, wh-”   
“No time to waste, get in the chair!”   
Joy shot an incredulous look at the man pushing her towards the chair. “But I was early!”   
“Change of plans, get in the chair!” the professor said, shoving her into a chair and ramming the neural helmet down onto her head. Both participants wearing the helmets, the test began automatically. Joy felt the familiar hum in her head as the test started. *It’ll never work.* What? That didn’t sound like her. It was too negative. *The first try never works.* Before Joy could think about this second thought, she was yanked into a bright light.   
Joy had read about this before. The memory sharing part of drifting. But she’d never gotten this far into a drift before, and the logical part of her brain wasn’t in the game. The emotion hit her full force. Sadness. Everything felt hopeless.

“Are you sure this was a good idea? These two are practically polar opposites.”   
“This is the furthest into a drift she’s ever gotten. They just need to find some common ground. This’ll work. I know it.”

Joy was standing in her 7-year-old self’s room. At least, she thought so. It was really foggy. The only thing she could make out was a toy train sitting in the floor. As she sat down in front of it, she heard “It’s broken.” Surprised, she looked around. She thought she saw a figure in the fog, but she couldn’t make out anything more. She turned her attention to the train instead. “I broke it and now it’ll never work again!” As Joy picked it up, she noticed one of the wheels stayed on the floor. “Nonsense!” Joy exclaimed. “This is easy. Here.” She put the wheel back on it’s axel, then bent one of the spokes of the wheel over the axel so it would stay on. “There!” she said, holding up the train to the fog person. A hand reached out, and touched the train. As it did, the fog cleared and Joy saw who it was she was drifting with. A short woman with glasses. *Oh no she’s cute* Joy thought, realizing too late that, being inside their own minds, this other lady could hear what she thought. Embarrassment hit her like an 18 wheeler, quickly desynchronizing them and ending the drift. As Joy pulled the helmet off her head, the event that had transpired fully processed in her mind. She drifted! She had done it! Jumping up, she grabbed the woman in the chair next to her in a tight hug, cheering. When she calmed down, the headmaster, who must’ve come in some time during the drift, smiled and said “Joy, meet your new partner Sadness. I think you two will make a great team.”


	30. Falling and Flying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for tears naughty children

Silence.   
That’s what Sadness noticed the most as they all stared out the hole. The deafening silence.   
Riley had just opened her report card late into the night, right before bed. All grades in the high 90’s. Everyone was happy, but of course Joy was going ballistic. She leapt and danced and kissed Sadness more than a few times. But then they all heard a “Whoa!” and turned around just in time to see Joy’s yellow glow disappear out of the hole in the glass Disgust had made to save them all that time ago. They all rushed to the hole, and were now peeking out, looking down into the dark pit where memories go to die. Anger used some of Riley’s new swears, and Fear was violently shaking. “How do we get her out?” Disgust said, panic etched into her voice. Sadness barely heard. She was too busy caught up in the thought of never seeing Joy again. Never feeling her thin arms around her, never being able to rub the porcupine hair…  
Sadness felt a drop on her cheek and looked up. She was making a rain cloud again. Wait! Her rain cloud! Without a second thought, Sadness leapt through the hole, intent on finding Joy.

Joy sat on the pile of memories, tears running down her cheeks. This pit always seemed to make her cry, but this time she didn’t make a sound. She was too busy thinking back to all the good times she had with her friends. And Sadness. They hadn’t been more than friends for long, but the time they had was one of the best times of her existence. She could almost hear her voice…  
Wait. She could hear her voice. “Joy!” Joy looked up and saw Sadness gliding in on her rain cloud. As the blue emotion landed, Joy ran up to her and hugged her as hard as the yellow emotion could. Or at least, she tried. Most of her right arm was gone. Sadness grabbed Joy’s good hand and said “Don’t worry. I can get us out of here on my cloud.” Sadness concentrated, thinking all the negative thoughts she could, but her cloud simply would not form. Concerned now, Sadness tried again, but again to no avail. The truth struck her like a slap to the face. It was Joy. The feeling of the taller emotion’s hand in hers, the simple physical closeness of the pair meant that no matter how hard she tried, Sadness would never be able to become sad enough to make a cloud. But, like most people in love do, she chose to ignore the truth and keep trying, even after Joy had realized the same thing.   
“Sadness.”  
Sadness pretended not to hear, frantically trying to avoid the conversation she knew would come.   
“Sadness. It won’t work.”   
Just like that, it was over. All of Sadness’s hope rushed out of her like air out of a balloon.   
“Look at me Sadness,” Joy said, choking out a sob before the “please.”   
Sadness turned to look, and saw that Joy’s arm and shoulder were gone, and her neck was vanishing fast. Joy quickly pressed a kiss to Sadness’s lips, primarily to get lost in the feeling one last time. But also, to assure something to herself. Joy’s radiant glow began to fade, dulling so far down that when the two emotions separated, her glow was no more than a tiny spark inside her being. She looked Sadness in the eyes one last time, and said “I love you.” as she dissolved into the wind.

The wail could be heard throughout all of Riley’s mind. Even Riley herself, unaware of the events that transpired, shuddered and gripped the blankets tighter around herself without waking, desperate to ward off the chill she felt in her heart.   
Sadness shot up into the air, her cloud powered by her grief at losing the person she cared so dearly for. The other emotions watch led her rocket by, unable to do anything as she settled near the roof of Riley’s mind. They gave up on calling for her and went to rest after the first hour. And she didn’t descend down and re-enter Headquarters for another three. And when she did, she only padded over to her room and locked herself in. She numbly gazed into the mirror hanging on her wall, not really seeing anything until she saw a familiar color that crushed her even more. It was Joy’s glow. Only it wasn’t Joy’s glow now. It was hers. Sadness gazed into the mirrors she put the pieces together. The way Joy looked before she…she…her glow was dimmed down to nearly nothing. And Sadness would bet money on the fact that having Joy’s glow meant that, while she herself didn’t change, she could make Riley happy like Joy herself did. Thinking of Joy while looking at the glow in the mirror was too much for Sadness. She collapsed on the floor, crying again. She didn’t want Joy’s glow, she wanted Joy herself, wiping the tears away and telling her that it would be OK. But Joy wasn’t here. And she never would be again.


	31. Nerves

Joy sat in her room, staring at the flowers sitting on her desk chair, trying to breathe normally. Come on, you’ll be fine. You and Sadness have been dancing around this for months now. You have to do it sooner or later, or else you’ll go insane. Steeling herself, Joy grabbed the flowers off the chair and headed out to the main room.

Walking by the controller, Joy caught a glimpse of Fear, Anger, and Disgust standing there, waiting for her to come out. When she did, at first she was nervous and desperately tried to hide the flowers behind her back. But the other three emotions only gave her a look saying “Come on, really? We know.” Admitting defeat, Joy let the flowers come out from behind her back, then took a deep breath and glanced over to Sadness’s room. The others must have noticed her trepidation, because Fear gave her a thumbs up, Anger punched his palm in a gesture that looked a little menacing, but Joy was sure he meant well. Behind them both, Disgust rolled her eyes and mouthed “Go. You got this. I’ll handle these two.” Joy nodded her appreciation to her, then turned back and faced Sadness’s room. Walking over to the door, she took a deep breath, then entered.

Sadness was laying on her stomach on her bed, reading a book. She had her glasses clamped in her teeth by one of the arms, her feet lazily kicked through the air every once in a while. Seeing the adorable sight, Joy’s heart started pounding and her confidence began to drain away. Why hadn’t she knocked? She hid the flowers once again, and cleared her throat. Sadness looked up from her book, and smiled when she saw who it was. Considering that the blue emotion was the embodiment of sad feelings, that fact that she smiled when she saw Joy was very amazing, something that did not go unnoticed by Joy. Telling herself not to stutter, Joy started talking. “Sadness, ever since our time outside Headquarters, I’ve realized how important you are to Riley. You help her in ways I couldn’t even imagine. And I’ve also learned how important you are to me. I can’t ever seem to not want to spend time with you” Oh god that was confusing. Come on you can save this. “You always balance out my eccentric, unending energy with your rational steadiness.” While Joy was talking, she must’ve been inching foreword and Sadness must have stood up, because now they were standing close to each other. It struck Joy how much she had to physically look down at Sadness, and she got really mad at how it must’ve seemed like she was superior. Her legs acting of her own accord, she knelt down front of Sadness. On two knees. One knee was much more significant. And for much much later. Bringing out the flowers from behind her back, Joy said “Sadness, will you be my girlfriend?” Sadness took the flowers, face unreadable. “I recognize these.” “Yeah.” Joy said, trying not to be disappointed with the delay in Sadness’s answer. “They were those ones Riley planted when she was seven they were washed away in that giant rainstorm. I had the guys in Imagination make them up for me. It’s a happy memory that becomes a sad memory.” Stop talking now Joy “So I thought it would be…” Joy trailed off, silently waiting for Sadness’s answer. The blue emotion looked up, tears in her eyes. In the span of one second, Joy’s mind raced through thousands of uncharacteristically negative thoughts. But it only lasted for that one second, because that’s the length of time it took her eyes to move from Sadness’s eyes to her mouth. She was smiling. Joy’s mind now filled with hopeful thoughts, desperate to be believed. “Of course I’ll be your girlfriend.” At first, Joy’s mind was blank, as if it were in shock. Then it was flooded with all the happy things she could remember. The smell of flowers. The sight of fireworks. That one song that has like 5,000 play on Riley’s iPod. Joy felt the biggest smile she had ever felt on her face growing. She let out a “Woohoo!” and, being caught up in the rush of giddiness she felt, leaned in and kissed Sadness right on the mouth. For the first half second, she admired the way Sadness’s lips tasted like the way rain smelled. But that thought was quickly wiped away when she felt how unresponsive Sadness was. Pulling away, she was mortified to see Sadness still as a statue, eyes staring a thousand miles away. She began panic-blabbing, saying something like “Sorry” and “won’t happen again” and “Oh God.” Sadness put her hand up to her lips, feeling where Joy had kissed her, relishing the taste of the way the perfect amount sunlight feels on your skin. Putting her hand on Joy’s shoulder, Sadness brought the taller emotion in and kissed her again. Initially startled, Joy quickly recovered and wrapped her arms around Sadness, pulling the blue emotion closer. A cheer came from just outside the doorway, startling them both a little, but not enough to stop kissing. Without opening her eyes, Joy grabbed the lamp off of Sadness’s nightstand and threw it at the doorway, smiling when she heard a very high-pitched “Ouch!” In Fear’s tone of voice. She would have to yell at Disgust later for not actually “handling” them. But that would be later. For now, she was going to enjoy this kiss for as long as she possibly could.


	32. Test

“Pop test!”

Jocelyn cringed as she heard the echoing “WHAT!” from the back of the room and the sound of a pen snapping, ink splattering onto a well-stained desk. Ms. Riley sighed. “Adam, do I need to write you a referral?” Adam growled and muttered a few words that shouldn’t be said in front of a highschool teacher, but sat back down and crossed his arms. Jocelyn took deep breaths, tuning out Felix’s incessant babbling about how he didn’t study and how apocalyptic this was. She was good at tuning things out, but strangely enough the quietest of sounds could punch through her mental walls. Like that of the soft sigh coming from the seat next to her. She turned and saw Samantha looking forlornly at her desk, dejected expression on her face. Her heart going out to the girl, she reached out and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ve got this.” Jocelyn said, grinning and giving Samantha’s shoulder a hopefully comforting squeeze. Samantha only glanced at her and sighed again. Jocelyn would have said more, but the test was out and talking would result in a very unpleasant grade, and her Chemistry grade wasn’t spectacular to begin with.

Jocelyn leaned against her locker at the end of the day, putting a few teeth marks into her newest pen as she thought. As another girl in her Chemistry class walked by, Jocelyn grabbed her arm and dragged her to the side of the hall. “Diana, have you ev-” “Get your disgusting sweaty hand off of me!” Jocelyn quickly took her hand off of Diana’s arm, watching as the girl pulled a rather large bottle of hand sanitizer out of her bag and vigorously applied it to where Jocelyn’s hand was. “Anyway, have you ever seen Samantha smile?” “What’s it matter to you?” “JUST…just answer, OK? Think about it.” Diana stood there, in a too-stereotypical-to-be-serious thinking pose before saying “No, I don’t think I have. Goodbye.” Jocelyn gaped at her retreating back. That was incredibly rude. But it did prove her point. As she turned to look down the hall, she saw Samantha standing at her own locker, expression unchanged from the test earlier that day. As soon as Jocelyn noticed, she made it her solemn duty to make Samantha smile, even if she had to hit her with laughing gas to get it.

Although she was joking to herself about that laughing gas thing, it was quickly looking like her only option. When attacking the bespectacled girl with apparently bad jokes (knock knock jokes ARE funny dang it!) and joyous words, she moved to spying on the girl until she got her locker combination, then proceeded to leave gifts in Samantha’s locker to cheer her up. When that didn’t work, she upgraded her gift game, and sometimes left more-than-friendly gifts (sure, roses and a heart shaped box of chocolates might be weird, but who doesn’t smile at those?!?), even then to no avail. For the first time in her life, Jocelyn was running out of ideas on how to make someone happy. And it was really getting to her. The fact made brutally clear to her when her History teacher passed back their tests to study from, and Jocelyn saw the red 35 circled at the top of her paper. She stared at the number, a tear falling down her face. She’d never gotten below a 74 before, and come on, no one got that Trig test! As the final bell rang, she numbly shuffled of to her locker, collected her things, and trailed out of the building, not seeing the worried set of eyes following her. She sat on the curb in front of the school, not worried about the busses going by, knowing she had her keys in her bag. She looked out over the parking lot, then put her head in her hands and sobbed quietly, shoulders shaking ever so slightly. She almost didn’t hear the soft thump of a person sitting down next to her. She looked up and saw Samantha sitting next to her, concern visible in her eyes. “What happened?” Jocelyn was too emotional to process that the girl she was trying to get to crack a smile was sitting next to her, openly talking to her. “I, I g-got a 35 on a test! That’s g-gonna k-kill my grade!” She blubbered out through her tears and runny nose. Samantha didn’t comment though, only handed her a tissue and said “It’s OK. You’re grades will be good enough to take the hit.” “R-really?” Jocelyn stuttered out, much dryer after wiping her eyes and blowing her nose, shooting the tissue into a nearby trash can. “Yeah. You’ll be fine.” Samantha said, putting her hand on Jocelyn’s knee in a gesture meant for comfort. And then she let out the smallest of smiles at Jocelyn, the corners of her mouth only slightly lifting. But it was more than enough for Jocelyn. All that time trying to get her to smile, she never imagined what the girl would look like while smiling. She was gorgeous. All of her sadness rushed out of her, and now she stuttered for a whole other reason when she said “Th-thank you.” Samantha nodded, then looked over to where the busses were. “Drat. I rode here.” “I’ll drive you!” Jocelyn said a little too quickly. “Are you sure? I mean, what if it’s really far out of your way, or-” “It’s OK! I don’t have anything scheduled all day!” This time, when Samantha smiled, Jocelyn was smiling too.


	33. Overrated

Joy snuggled deeper into the couch she made those memory erasing guys bring her, tossed a piece of popcorn into her mouth and set in to watch Riley’s dream. All the other emotions had gone off to rest, and she would too, but she always took a few minutes to check on Riley’s dreams to see what she might need for her next day. Fear, Anger, Disgust, or even Sadness. Thinking about her made Joy cringe. Not at the emotion herself, but how Joy refused to let her play a part in Riley’s life for so long. All those years she would never get back…

Joy jumped and shrieked a little as something slid over the back of the couch and landed next to her. She calmed down when she realized it was Sadness herself, almost as if the shorter blue emotion had read her mind.

“What are you doing up?” Joy whispered, careful to not wake anyone else.

“I just wanted to sit with you while you check in on Riley’s dreams. It must be depressing sitting here alone every night.” Sadness muttered out, refusing to look over at Joy.

Joy’s face softened out into a smile, turning back to the screen and offering Sadness the bowl of popcorn. She took some, careful to not let the rain she now caused on occasion to spring up and ruin the snack, and sat back to watch with Joy.

After some time had passed, Riley’s dream took her to the top of a castle guarded by a dragon. As she stood there in a pretty dress, waving a handkerchief in the air, a knight in shining armor rode over the hill to save her. When Joy saw this, she gave an exasperated sigh and threw popcorn at the screen.

“Boo! Boys are overrated!” She whisper-yelled, still conscious of her sleeping friends. To her surprise, Sadness whispered “Yeah!” and even stood up on the couch in a rather heroic pose. “Who needs them?” Joy looked over at Sadness, feeling some mixture of emotions none of them had experienced before bubble up. Until she noticed Sadness’s glasses. They were covered in dirt and scratches, probably from their “vacation” outside Headquarters. She gently pulled Sadness back down onto the couch, turned the blue emotion’s head towards her, and took off the glasses, asking “How long have these been like this?”

“Oh, uuuh, I don’t know?” Sadness replied, squinting as she watched the glowing emotion rub the lenses on her dress.

“There!” Joy said, triumphantly holding up the cleaner glasses. “I couldn’t do much about the scratches, but all the dirt is off. Now…” She said, faltering as she turned back to Sadness. “I, uh, I don’t actually know where your ears are. Hold on.” Sadness held back a surprised gasp as Joy’s hands worked their way into her hair, sweeping for her ears. She could have easily moved her own hair aside, but her hands were suddenly not responding.

“Hang on…almost…aha!” Joy triumphantly sang as her hand brushed up against what must have been Sadness’s ear. Sliding on the glasses, she basked in her success before realizing where she was. Her face was inches from Sadness’s, her hand now cupping her face. Both of them blushing furiously, neither moved.

Unseen by either of them, the knight in Riley’s dream shimmered, becoming much more feminine for half a second.

Joy jumped away from Sadness, frantically apologizing and coming up with excuses, until Sadness put her hand on Joy’s arm. Joy looked down, and saw a blue hand holding out the popcorn bowl, a peace offering she couldn’t put into words. Joy smiled, taking some of the popcorn and sitting back, watching the rest of the dream with Sadness in a comfortable silence.

Fear yawned, stretching and rising out of his bed, the first of the emotions to rise. As made his way over to the controller, he noticed Joy’s spiky blue hair peaking out from behind the back of the couch. Moving silently as not to wake the energetic emotion until he was in front of her, he made his way around the couch to tell her to get up, their day was starting. But the words died on his lips as he saw the front of the couch. Joy was there, sound asleep. But Sadness was there to, laying on top of Joy, arms wrapped around each other. Fear thought quickly, then slunk back to his room. He then mimicked his earlier yawn, but much louder, clearly saying “Alright, time to work folks!” As Anger let out his usual string of curse words at being awoken, Fear made his way back over to the controller, hiding a grin when he saw Joy and Sadness already there, both refusing to look at each other and blushing a deep red.


	34. Gnat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Guess it's time to get back into the swing of things.

Sadness knew Joy was very talkative and energetic. That was why the pair were together after all, Sadness helped slow Joy down, and Joy helped pick Sadness up.   
But there was no slowing Joy down now. It seemed obvious in retrospect, that Joy would be a happy drunk. But Sadness guessed that everyone, herself included, assumed Joy would be dopey-happy. Just laying on the floor and giggling to herself. No-one expected alcohol, a depressant, to only speed Joy up for an extended period of time. When she told two girls at the bar that they should get married, and proceeded to give a 500 word speech as to why, everyone decided it was time to call it a night. Unfortunately, since Joy and Sadness were married, Joy was automatically Sadness’s problem.   
After one of the most agonizing and embarrassing bus rides Sadness had ever been on, the pair finally arrived home. Joy burst through the door, zipping a mile a minute. Sadness followed at a much slower pace, locking the door behind them and plopping onto the living room couch as soon as she was able.   
“HeySadnessIthinkweshouldrearrangethebedroomthebedwouldlookmuchnicerunderthewindowohbutwaitthenthelightwouldshineontheTVsomaybewerotateeverythingclokwiseand-”  
“Joy.” Sadness rubbed her hand down her face. God, she didn’t want to be angry at her wife, she really didn’t. But it was just too much.  
“I love you. I really do. But please, you need to slow down. I’m getting a headache and I just need some quiet time.”   
Joy stopped dead in her tracks (in the middle of the kitchen, from the sound of it) and slowly walked into the room. A massive grin was on her face, and it confused Sadness.  
“What?”  
Joy sat down next to Sadness and snuggled up under her arm. “I’m so glad you say those things to me.”  
“Wha?”  
“Most people would just bottle it up in a very unhealthy way, but you’re willing to say your mind, even if you think it will upset me.” Joy pressed her face into Sadness’s side. “I’m glad.” Sadness smiled and kissed Joy’s head, putting her arms around her shoulders.

They fell asleep in that exact position.


End file.
